I usually struggled with the problem of heavy sleeping from time to time, but when I read this book, the anointing to rise early fell upon me. Here are some of the lessons I gleaned from the book.
Firstly, before I do that, let me tell you the name of the book: the name of the book is – Understanding Divine Direction by Bishop David Oyedepo.
Now, back to the lessons gained:
1. The best time to hear from God is in the early hours of the morning. Jesus had great exploits in life and ministry because He understood this principle (Mark 1:35; Isaiah 50:4-5; Psalm 19:2; Ecclesiastes.3:1.)
Hear the Bishop himself: “The vital pillars of my life and ministry were delivered to me in the early hours. The eighteen-hour long commission I received for ministry began in the early hours of May 1, 1981. When we were to move from Ilorin to Kaduna, the instruction was given to me in the early hour – 5:30 a.m. God said to me, ‘Arise, get out to Damascus and there it shall be told you what things are there for you to do.’ My wife and I had been worshipping before Him, asking Him whether to move on to Kaduna or continue our operations in Ilorin. Then He asked me to pick up my Bible and when I did, that Word just came up. It was also in the early hours of the morning that I received the instruction, ‘Arise, get down to Lagos and raise Me a people.’ I was having a nice time, enjoying fellowship with Jesus one early morning in 1983 when I received the commission for our publishing house. He said to me, ‘The words that I have put in your mouth, the same commit into writing, and I will cause the same unction upon the words you speak to rest upon the written words, bringing about the same effect.’ To further confirm what He had told me, He said, ‘What thou seest, write in a book.’ Now, by the grace of God, we have a very successful publishing house, that has printed and dispatched books all over the world.
2. You can’t be a heavy sleeper and expect to be a star at the same time. You have to choose one. You are either a sleeper or a star. Sleeping till 6.30 a.m. and stretching at 7 a.m. is not the way up. Nothing corrupts destiny like sleep!
The Bishop also wrote “I read of a man who grew to be a very great businessman. He always woke up between 2-5 a.m. daily, to map out his strategies for the day. This man has investments in 160 countries spread over five continents! You are loaded with great potential, I pray that sleep will not destroy it. You don’t have any other enemy than Satan, and all that he does is to steal, kill and destroy. Sleep steals and destroys destinies and crowns. People who should be kings are dying as mere men, because of too much sleep. Sleep kills great
destinies and dreams. It frustrates men and destroys them spiritually. It’s my prayer that you receive strength this hour, to put your early hours of the day to maximum use, standing before the Lord to hear what He will say to you.” (Genesis 19:27; Exodus 34:4-5; Joshua 6:12,15; Proverbs 8:17)
3. No amount of revelation you have can take the place of instruction. Divine instruction tells you what to do to get to your high place in life. Friend, you will not lose your destiny to sleep, in Jesus’ name! Nothing will block your access to His voice from henceforth, in the precious name of Jesus!
Say to God, “Lord, I want a baptism into this early morning rising, so I can stand before You and enjoy unending celebrations with You.”